


Wolf

by 3ryn (CoyoteAzkira)



Series: Hawke's Companions: the full story [1]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: F/F, Fenders, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mind Games, Nightmares, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Slavery, Torture, lore and lots of it, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 05:57:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1499173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoyoteAzkira/pseuds/3ryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leto starts out as nothing more than a slave. Then he's a nameless branded elf. Then Fenris the lapdog of Danarius. Then Fenris rescued by the fog warriors. After that Fenris the fugitive. Then finally Fenris the companion of Hawke. But how did all this happen? (Or Fenris' story starting as Leto then going all the way through act 3.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Roots

**Author's Note:**

> Yayfinally dod something with my Ao3 account. This is going to dark and rating may rise to mature.

Leto crouched under one of the broadleaved trees that bore small vibrant red fruit. His green eyes flickered from side to side as he calmed his breath and listened. The expressive ears native to the elven race served him well as he heard a sharp snap come from behind. He grinned as he ducked lower, black hair falling forward to cover his angular face. Mere seconds later a thin elven girl struggled through the undergrowth, red hair tied back by woven stands of bark and her face a raging storm as she stalked the forest of Seheron for her brother.

 

Leto waited for her to cross the clearing that made way for a path in front of him. The redheads stained blue dress caught on the thorn of one of the plants. She paused to untangle herself, casting a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching her. Leto held his breath in amusement as she struggled to work herself free. Finally wrenching the fabric from the clutches of the spiked plant, she cursed as she fell backwards "Fasta vass!" Leto watched as she tried to regain her footing her green eyes flashing in her anger as they darkened but they continued to flick to every shadowed area, ever watchful.

She angled her ears carefully as if listening for something "Leto, I know you are near, if you pop out and scare me I'll-"she started in Arcanum.

Leto had moved so his lips where inches from her overly sensitive elf ears before he remarked loudly "You will what Varania?" He asked then snapped back with laughter as his sister bolted a few steps her eyes wide. She may have looked to be only two or three years younger than her brother but her body language proclaimed her his superior by at least one. "Venhedis Brother! Now is not the time for games," she snapped shoving her little brother away with annoyance. "Servus protervus, stubborn slave" she spat using the word stubborn as an insult.

"It is what I am here for." Leto replied with a shrug but a small frown that always seemed to lurk on his face was practically begging to become a scowl.

"Yes, a slave bred and raised to be wild and stubborn, so that one day you may be sold to a magister who wishes a plaything to break and torture at their leisure." Varania paused her voice wavering, giving a hint as to her true feelings on the matter "And as soon as you break, your master will toss you aside for use in a ritual and that will be the end for you."

 

"Do not concern yourself with my troubles sister." Leto said brushing his black hair away from his face to shoot his sister a comforting look.

 

"Talk of your nature as unbreakable has been spread far; Master Ahriman wishes to receive a good price for you. I've heard him constantly speak to visiting Magisters of your potential and ability, he's got several of them going to the provings just to see you, I almost find myself wishing you might die in them." Varania continued, her voice holding a new emotion that sounded like anxiety. Leto did not respond.

 

The two siblings moved through the dense foliage of their master's garden as they headed back to the slave quarters, one with dark black hair, and the other with light red. "What will mother and I do without you Leto?" Varania asked as her ears lowered slightly with the question.

 

"As you have always done I suspect. Anyway, better me than you. I am far less breakable." Leto answered keeping his eyes forward.

"Have you no fear brother! Maybe you should think of yourself for once, you cannot sacrifice yourself like that. What you plan to do will get you killed." Varania said the last of her cool composer falling as she turned on her brother, green eyes ablaze with fiery light.

"And what should I do Varania?" Leto snarled, "I am no mage, I cannot get by as you have, I am no kitchen slave like mother. I have been born and raised to be broken but not without giving a fight. But it is no matter; the provings are not for another month."

"You're really going to fight in the arena? There is nothing I can do to convince you not to volunteer?" Varania asked as they began walking again.

"I am going to fight and I hardly have a choice anymore. Our master would make me if I refused."

"Promise me one thing then."

"Anything." Leto responded on instinct.

"The boon, you will not use it to free me and mother, swear it Leto."

Leto almost tripped as he looked at his sister in shock "Va-"

"Swear it Leto!" she snapped impatiently.

"I swear." He neglected to mention what exactly he was swearing to but Varania did not push any more.

They walked into a dimly lit room, dirty blankets where balled up in a corner where Varania Leto and their mother slept. There was a rickety chair in one of the other corners; the chair Leto had constructed from pieces of fallen branches and scraps of metal with some help from Varania, even if what little magic she knew was hardly helpful.

Their mother was cleaning the floor of the area they slept in as she did every night before they retired. It was a little effort to keep vermin, and therefor disease, away from their sleeping bodies. She looked at them quickly, her eyes not quite meeting theirs.

"Leto," Their mother murmured glancing over her eyes still kept lowered. Varania gave a short huff of annoyance as their mother addressed her brother first.

"Mother," Leto responded moving closer to her and taking the wash cloth from her hands. His voice held love and the softness one reserved for small children.

"My head, it hurts Leto." The elf said her voice clipping.

"Of course mother, Varania can do something to help." Leto said gently, giving his sister a glare as she rolled her eyes.

"There is something I need to tell you mother." Leto began as Varania's hands glowed with an ice spell, it was weak and unfocused, but their mother's eyes cleared at its presence. She glanced at him waiting for him to continue. "I am going to volunteer for the provings mother, if I win I-"

"Do not speak such words! Why would you want to leave; we have everything we need, Food, water, and even shelter! I do not understand why you want to leave. There is nothing else, Leto, only the master here! What are you doing trying to change things?" Said his mother her eyes clouded in confusion. Leto gave his sister a helpless look, to which she scoffed and moved her focus back to the ice spell.

"I try because I must. If I win I will become very valuable and I will be granted a boon" he paused as Varania sent him a sharp look he swallowed around his lie "I could ask the Magisters to take good care of you two, maybe better food or a cleaner sleeping area?" he finished like a question at his mother's look.

"Oh Leto," she said his name in a tone that implied she thought this notion daft, she believed that his time among the field carefree had put silly notions in his head about freedom and rights. "I dream only of pleasing our master. We must please him. We must obey. Such talk is against the rules. We wish only the will of our master and the kindness he shows if we please him. Any punishment is our fault, any pain, deserved. All happiness is a gift from our master and he has the right to take it from us for it is not ours in the first place. To try and change that is, wrong." Said Leto's mother calmly.

Leto hesitated, "But these are the rules! The master wants me to fight!" his voice raising as he tried to make his mother snap out of it and listen to what he was actually saying.

"No no, it is wrong." His mother murmured her eyes glazing over as she curled up. Leto's shoulders sagged as he watched her breathing slow.

"I tried." He said, more to himself than to Varania.

"I don't know why you bother, she's gone mad, we would be better off if the master just did away with her." Varania sneered.

"Varania!" Leto growled standing up his eyes threatening her to continue with that train of thought.

"Leto." She responded her voice ice.

Leto sighed as he sat back in the chair and leaned back not wanting to argue with his sister, not over this. She is my sister, she does not mean it, she is just tired. He told himself as he drifted off to sleep.

The next day found Leto standing in the training yard with several of the manor guards. Many laughed and kicked at him as he passed. Each time he would come a hairs breadth away from turning and giving them a solid punch to the face, even if he knew it would not be a very smart thing to do. With a fond thought he recalled Varania telling him he had always acted on instinct instead of any decent logic. She had meant it as an insult but it was more than that, instincts were what kept him a swing ahead of the trained guards, instincts were what made him duck and weave with all the grace of an elf but none of the skittishness. He faced his opponent head on like a Qunari, with the speed of an Elf and the dirty tactics of a Human.

"So elf ready to have your pretty behind planted in the mud?" one of the Humans laughed. Leto remained stiff and silent as he glared at the men. Several of them snickered as they watched the Human speak. "Well, Magister Ahriman told us to teach you a few things, I figured we should start with making sure you're in possession of that famed elven agility." Leto frowned; the last group he had trained with had not spoken to him like this. The leader of that particular group had been born in Rivani and slavery was not big there. The man had preferred to pretend Leto was a servant.

The human moved forward with heavy steps, his body encased with noisy steel, the armor Leto recognized from one of his many lashings. Leto avoided his slow swing with ease when the man lurched forward, his sword whipping past Leto's chest. The elf scanned the man's stance and motion for any information that might help him defeat his opposite, despite his lack of a weapon. One of the younger guard member's, really they were hired mercenaries, sword strap was tied around his hips but from the looks of the messy knot could be pulled free with a simple tug. Leto snapped his gaze back to the charging man who moved with no grace and was all blunt force. Moving to the side with a cat like grace, Leto began to try to flank the man. Many of the guard where to slow in their bulky armor to prove much of a challenge anyway as Leto dodged and ducked around them.

As Leto moved to the side to grab at the young man's sword, the other human who was in the process of trying to hit him, managed to reach forward and grab the back of his shirt. "Oh no you don't knife ear." He snarled at him but Leto wretched forward hearing the sound of ripping cloth as he fell forward and right into the young mercenary. His hand grasped the sword hit and ripped it free just in time to meet the blade of the guard. The man was strong and Leto's hold and possession where wrong to be able to hold the blade off. Instead, he turned the blade onto its flat side and slid it along the swords length, moving with it as he did, and rushed out from under the other sword's glinting edge. Dirt and mud hit his legs as he skidded to a stop a few feet away, his breath coming in short pants, but at least he did not have to wear heavy armor that heated in the sun and rusted in the mud. The guards however, he thought with a thrill of satisfaction, were fumbling in their heavy armor as they scrambled to catch him. Leto adjusted his stance, keeping his weight distributed, ready to move at the drop of a sword.

The guard that had so gracelessly tried to overpower him opened his mouth to say something before applause broke the silence. Leto turned eyes wide toward the sound. He had to lower his eyes and drop down to a knee as he saw his master clapping. "Well I must say, that was quite a show, I daresay Leto is just about ready if he can outflank one of my most expensive guards so easily." Leto felt relief tingle up his spine as he heard his masters ire directed to the trained guard who should have provided more of a challenge. "Leto how long have you been training?"

Leto squirmed at the question, slaves should not speak, but on the other hand, he could not disobey an order and stay quiet "Most of my life Master."

"Oh?" his master prompted, it was a question and one his master clearly believed should not have needed asking and should have been apart of Leto's original answer.

"I have been raised tervus Master." He added tervus being the word used to mean unyielding, stubborn, in association with a slave. One who had been raised to provide sport with a punishable attitude paired with a defensive whit.

"Ah yes, I remember now, your sister, isn't she a mage?"

"Yes Master, thanks to your kindness and generosity she has been taught a few simple spells, Master." Leto said, hoping his master didn't pick up on his clenched teeth as he forced the subservient words from his mouth. He heard the mage laugh but he was walking away.

Leto raised his head to chance a quick look at the guard, the man's scrunched in face was dark with anger as he shot a glare at the slave. Adjusting his grip on the heavy sword that was still in his hand, Leto stood with a defiant glare of his own. The guard grinned, his features taking on a feral appearance; he tightened his shield straps as he watched the elf.

"Come on Knife-ear, lets see what you can do against a group, that's 'ow they fight in the provings anyway, you'd better prepare yourself little one."

Leto spat on the ground in front of the guard in a anger but said nothing, narrowing his green eyes he watched as four guards circled him. The younger one from which he took the blade had been handed some sort of mace with barbed blades.

Leto allowed himself a small smile before growling "Come at me."

The guards brash as they were did not take the bait and just laughed. He had to twist at a painful angle as two of them darted in from opposite sides, swords whirling. Ducking low to the right he rolled to the side. The circle kept getting smaller and Leto flashed twisted, judging more by sound than by sight. As a squelch of mud alerted him to movement behind him he loosened his stance and ducked. His mind raced, the sword made a small cut on his ear and his eyes flew wide. An inhuman sound rattled from his mouth and he twisted with pain fueling his speed and using his hand slapped the sword away. The guard staggered back startled. Leto wasted little time using the break in the circle to run.

One of the guards tried to grab him by the neck but he, snarled, like a savage dog he thrashed. The throb in his ear blinding what little reasoning he had formerly been using. Twisting he bit the man and drew blood with his sharp elf teeth. His wide green eyes flickered to the mans face only to see the young guard whose sword was clenched in his hand.

Hands were on him instantly, trying to pry him from the guard. A single voice broke through the pounding in his ears and a single word made his body go limp and crumble.

"Leto." the voice growled low.

There was talking and yelling, but Leto paid no attention to the guards voices, focused only on the elf who stood angrily speaking to the guards, talking about loss of money if Leto was killed and how very angry their employer would be. Leto saw the guards walk away and he saw the elf turn and give him a glare. Leto dropped his eyes, as was proper but the churning current of his mind did not cease.

The elf was not a slave.

He was not here against his will but by choice.

He was not a warrior or a worker. He was a master.

He was a mage.

He was Leto's father.


	2. Base

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leto gets home, plans are reveled, darkness descends, in that order

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay chapter 2 :)

The elf, the magister, had Leto dropped off at the small shack that their family shared. When Leto woke up he looked right at his sister and saw the look on her face. He asked "He's here because of you isn't he." She nodded, her red hair tied back into a bun. He sighed, the last time they had seen their father he had been accompanying Magister Danarius to a party Magister Ahriman held several months back. It was not abnormal for Magisters to sire children with a slave; it would only be strange if Leto's father actually cared about his mother sister and him.

"He wishes to purchase me. He is debating a price with Magister Ahriman as we speak." Varania said sadly.

"Purchase you! Why?" Leto asked, ice claws snaking into his chest as he pictured having to take care of their mother for himself.

"My magic."

"He wants you to be his apprentice?" Leto asked. If that were so then his sister would be free.

"No, the Magisters have a theory." She stuttered out shaking.

"What?" Leto asked alarmed, it was not often that his sister let emotion cloud her words.

"That someone who is weak minded and submissive provides less fuel than one who is strong and defiant." Varania said squeezing her eyes shut, fear evident on her face but bitterness dripping from her voice, "But Magister Ahriman feels that if he were to sell me it would negatively affect your fighting in the arena. It is your worth versus my worth. I'm sure I'll be safe." Leto understood the bitterness just then and sat back.

"You are upset and not about the possibility of being sold." Leto said dumbstruck.

"Yes." she seethed "Being bought and sold is just another part of our place, it is however not my part to be stuck in little brother's shadow, always depending on him for my safety! But you don't care; all you care about is mother!"

"No! That's not true!" Leto said his voice cracking as he leapt up from his seat.

"Really? She's crazy, everyday there is a chance that she will mess up in her duties and be killed! But that doesn't matter, what matters is that it might be taken out on us!"

Leto studied his sisters wide green eyes, "You're scared, scared that if you admit you still love her it will hurt even more when, if, that happens." Varania squeezed her eyes closed and wrapped her arms around her brother. They stayed in the embrace until a knock sounded on the frame around the entry. Leto had Varania go lay under all the blankets on the floor and curl into a ball in an attempt to hide. Leto opened the door, which was little more than a curtain and came face to face with another elf. "Arbor," he greeted looking at the thin elf who was panting heavily.

"Your sister, she won't be sold until after the games, please don't tell the master that I told you, I was not supposed to hear them talking but I was cleaning the bannister and I couldn't help it!" The brown haired elf said frantically grasping the front of Leto's shirt, his eyes wide. Leto felt a twinge of sympathy for the elf; Arbor had been trained to be a cleaning slave, not like Leto. Leto was trained to snap and bite so the master always had someone to beat punish and most importantly break. Arbor was already broken.

"Thank you, I swear on my blood to keep this a secret." Leto said as the elf nodded and raced away.

He turned back to tell Varania only to see a spark of light coming from under the blankets "Varania!" Slaves were not allowed to practice magic without the Master's permission.

The light flickered out and Varania threw the blankets back "I do not like the dark Leto." Leto hesitated before he nodded; the dark was a dangerous time. The less powerful Magisters were unable to practice blatant blood magic in the light of day, as it was a clear challenge. If a mage could not stand his own against competitors he should not make himself seem a threat. Most slaves learned young that it was best to be both unseen and unheard once the sun set. "You are hurt still," Varania observed quietly and Leto felt the small sting of a few bruises.

"It's nothing."

"Let me heal them, please brother," Varania requested before sending healing magic into his skin.

Leto tensed "Varania," he said shaking his head, it was not so much that he disapproved of her learning to control her magic but that it reminded him so very much of the Magisters that ruled their lives.

She smiled and murmured "Not all magic is evil brother," she always knew how to read him. Leto just scoffed playfully and went out to find their mother and escort her home. There was only a week before Leto would be sent to Minrathous and would have to fight in the arena.

Till then, he would keep his plans to free both his sister and his mother secret. He would certainly not allow his sister to be used in some experiment.

He found his mother in the gardens; she was clipping one of the bushes into a neat shape and humming under her breath. Red hair hung over her face but she did not look tired or sad. For a moment Leto could almost forget that she had lost her mind. That she was still the women who used to pick him up so he could reach the apples that grew on one of the trees. The women that let him sneak one into his shirt to eat latter while they carried the basket to the kitchen entrance for the house slaves to take care of.

"Mother." he said gently and she turned her green eyes already dimming, the sickness of her mind would be easily fixed if only they could find a healer with more advanced magic than Varania, or even an adept alchemist. If only they were free.

"Do I know you?" she asked and he winced, the sickness in her mind twisted her memories till she could no longer remember things correctly, "Yes but it does not matter, come, I am going to take you home to your children." he said calmly.

"Oh my children. Do you know Leto? He's going to be a great fighter one day, fight in the provings!" She said moving to walk beside him.

"Yes, how proud you must be, of him and Varania."

"Varania who is that?" she asked and once again Leto winced, he didn't know why his mother forgot Varania and not him.

"Your daughter, she's older than Leto." Leto said calmly.

"Leto?" she asked looking at him critically.

"Yes Mother?"

"I don't have a daughter." She stated coldly.

Leto sighed, not this again "Yes you do, she has red hair and green eyes." Leto's mother said nothing in return and the two of them made it back to the shack without running into any of the guards that liked to poke fun at Leto's mother for her sickness.

Pushing aside the curtain that covered the entrance to the shack Leto bid his mother to sit down on the blankets and pillows while he waited at the front of the shack for the service slaves to bring them food rations.

~0~

Varania stood in the sitting room of their masters home, some of the house slaves had scrubbed her down and fitted her into one of black dresses the female house slaves were expected to wear. Magister Ahriman sat in a large padded chair watching her.

"I understand you are aware of my deal with Magister Loptr." Magister Ahriman asked. Varania flinched slightly at her father's name but managed to keep her face straight.

"Yes Master." she said squeezing her hands together behind her back to keep from fidgeting.

Magister Ahriman stroked his beard thoughtfully, Varania thought he looked rather foolish, "I am curious to see the results of this experiment of his, yet I also wish to win the favor of Magister Danarius." The magister paused and glanced at Varania once more, "How is your magic Varania?"

Varania eyed her Master warily, and by eyed she fixed her eyes on his shoulders and read then tension in them "I know what I have been taught Master."

"And that would be?" The magister inquired smoothly.

"Lesser spells Master. Mage light, healing touch, earthly aid and ember jolt Master."

"Perhaps," Her master drawled with a shrewd smile "You have a worth that has been ignored my pet. This is something that should be amended.

**Author's Note:**

> I ask that you the readers keep in mind that Leto is not Fenris and they thereforedo not act the same. There is obviously things that are not "lore" but every additional fact is there to add more to the character.


End file.
